LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN A CARIBBEAN PERSPECTIVE 

NOEL ERSKINE

DECOLONIZING THEOLOGY 

One of the functions of Liberation Theology in seeking to engage in God-talk from a Third World Perspective, is to decolonize the the theology which the Europeans imposed on people from the Third World and also in the U.S.A.  By decolonize, I mean stripping theology (God-talk) from those colonial elements that maintain non-white people in a position of economic, political, and social subservience. 

Noel Erskine is important for relating liberation theology to the Caribbean context.A native of Jamaica, Erskine is much more sensitive to racism than are his Latin American counterparts. Noel Leo Erskine was a member of the faculty of Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (Ferm, op. cit., p. 127).

In his book, Decolonizing Theology: A Caribbean Perspective, he develops the theme that, just as the Caribbean has been wrongly interpreted from a First World Perspective, so too would it be incorrectly analyzed "through Latin American lenses (Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 198, p. 118). 

Erskine traces the unique history of the colonization of Jamaica, which involved the importation of Africa as slaves, and points out how the black experience of slavery in Jamaica differs from slavery in the context of North America (Ferm, op. cit. p. 51).  

For Erskine, the "decolonizing" of theology must recognize a powerful racial component that goes beyond socio-economic factors and class distinctions. Liberation from economic oppression is only part of the task. Integral freedom must be the goal of liberation (Ibid.).  

We find in Noel Erskine the same thing that we find in James Cone (the Father of African-American Liberation Theology) in the United States.  Both Cone and Erskine focus on liberation on something that needs to include race as much as the issues of gender, and social class.  

While Father Gustavo Gutierrrez, the Father of Latin American Liberation Theology focuses on "God's preferential option for the poor," Noel Erskine would focus on "God's preferential option for black people."  Neither Cone nor Erskine would imply that God favors black people because they are black, but rather because they are oppressed by the white power structure in the Caribbean and. in the U.S.A. 

Like Cone, Erskine would believes that if theology (God-talk) is done independently of the situation of oppression of black people, then  it is both demonic and irrelevant. Theological abstractions and speculation do not mean anything to people who are in economic, political, and social bondage.  

This particular Afro-Puerto Rican theologian (Yours truly) resonates with Erskine.  In order for theology to speak to colonized groups, it must raise the question "How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"  Theology has to address their colonial bondage and poverty, otherwise, it is empty talk and rhetorical sensationalism.  

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.  

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Visiting Professor of Latin American Theology 

Tainan Theological College/Seminary, Tainan, Taiwan